CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - A black activist who says he took control over one of the nation's largest neo-Nazi groups has been barred from participating on the group's behalf in a federal lawsuit over the violence that erupted at a white nationalist rally in Virginia.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Joel Hoppe said in an order Thursday that James Hart Stern cannot represent the National Socialist Movement because he is not an attorney and also hasn't hired one. Instead, the magistrate is allowing an attorney based in Burke, Virginia, to represent the neo-Nazi group and its longtime leader, Jeff Schoep.
Schoep has claimed Stern essentially tricked him into transferring leadership. Stern said he wanted to undermine the group's defense against the lawsuit filed over bloodshed at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
